A World without walls
everyday life while homeschooling overseas
Bunch of sickos!
I'm sure EVERYONE is wondering why I haven't posted for awhile. Well, the problem is, mostly, that there hasn't been TONS to post about...AND there's been too much going on! How does that work, you might ask? Well, first of all, there's the picture...that sums up the entire last week of our stay in Israel. Josh got sick while we were in Tel Aviv. A few days later, the other three all got it. :( They were down with fevers and colds, aches and pains. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday had all of them sitting on the couches in comas while watching movies. This time, however, their eyes weren't glazed over by the 'movie monster'--it was glazed with fever. I felt so bad for the poor little munchkins! They were little lumps for days on end! They didn't even get crazy with cabin fever after staying still for so long. Yes, they were sick. Friday and Saturday, we took advantage of the sickness and spent most of the time cleaning up the apartment in order to leave. I just hate the final cleaning. It gives me nightmares. I feel like nothing is ever clean enough and I start obsessing over it. Not a healthy thing. But, we managed it, and no one was the worse for wear (I think). Sunday morning, with two little boys still getting over the fever, we started our journey homeward. We only stopped to find some Jerusalem magnets (we collect magnets for the fridge from everywhere we've lived or stayed for longer than 2 days) and a gas station. The car was loaded and we were hoping fervently for a quick and easy border crossing so we could be home by lunchtime! Nope. To make a LONG story short: Apparently the person who took Devin through the border crossing INTO Israel, forgot to take him to the place to get the car registered in Israel and pay the Israeli car insurance! That's a BIG whoops!! It took almost 2 hours to sort that one out, and after Peter finally screamed himself to sleep in my lap (poor kid with his high fever) I think the people took pity on us and let us go. They threatened that they wouldn't let us go home, though! They said that, "No Hebrew papers, you don't go home!" I almost fell into a little purple puddle right then. Home. That's what I wanted. A place where we could rest and get over being sick! We made it, though. We got through and back to our home. We hit a little roadblock when we opened our front door, though. Devin walked in and noticed that the main circuit breaker was tripped. I didn't think much about it. So what? We don't need electricity when we're not here! And then... (**dum dum dum--scary theme music placed here***) we opened the freezers. Oh gross. Dead and decomposing livestock lived in them along with a colony of fruit flies...and I don't know what else. It was the most horrendous smell I've ever encountered. The insides of the freezers were almost black, everything had oozed down the doors and out and onto the floors and was dried up. We spent hours cleaning with bleach and any other disinfectant we could get our hands on. No good. They looked alright, but when we plugged them in, it would start to heat up...and our house would smell like a dead cow all over again! UGH!!! So, spoiled people that we are, we asked for replacements and got them...now we are the proud owners of a new fridge and upright freezer. They're lovely and wonderful and I will never leave anything in them when we go on an extended stay trip ever again. I think this happened partly because we've never left home that long before. When we leave for that long, it's usually homeleave. Anyway, lesson learned. Other than that, we're back to 'normal' life. We do school here and there. We're doing a unit study on oceans. And we're studying Greek myths...because I love them! The kids take tennis and swimming lessons for the summer. Josh and I are starting training to become certified scuba divers. I decided this would be a great 4th grade oceans unit immersion project! :) We're hoping that all works out. I'm deep cleaning my house. I've gotten rid of SO much stuff already, it's ridiculous! We have to much, and it's making me crazy. Time to simplify! The kids have been really helpful in this process...especially when I told the older two that if they brought me 27 things that they wanted to get rid of, I'd pay them 50 cents. He he he... AND if they want to sell anything, they get the money for it. It's been working thus far. We'll see how far I can push them! Now that we're back, I thought I'd post a few random tidbits of things that haven't gone into any one post, but are noteworthy, or just funny, and need to be addressed for history sake! :) So, here are some random things for your enjoyment: Hurrah for Israel...! However, we like Jordan. It's so good to be home.
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Yesterday morning, Devin was running a bit late, so we offered to drive him to work. Unfortunately, traffic was really bad, and I think he probably would have gotten there faster if he would have walked. Fortunately, the kids and I were now outside and all dressed, so we took advantage of that fact and decided to make use of a lovely, sunshiny, cool morning (before the heat set in) and go to a park! I've been wanting to go to the Liberty Bell park and see the Liberty Bell knock-off, so off we went! We found it easily enough, and lucked out with some great parking. The kids were able to play and play! They got to swing on the swings and climb through the maze of slides and tunnels... (My favorite was when Josh got into the baby swing and said, "Come push me, Mommy!" in a very silly voice. I said no, but PETER got off of his swing so he could go push his big brother! SO CUTE!!) We played at the exercise park, then ran down an archway to the Liberty Bell Just past the Bell was a giant dragon half buried in the ground, so the kids attacked him! Now we don't have to go to Philadelphia! :D
It was a nice morning, and then we were able to come home and enjoy the A/C for the rest of the day! I finished a really good book ('The Shuttle' by Frances Hodgson Burnett--author of The Secret Garden and 'A Little Princess'--it didn't disappoint! Go read it!) while the kids played. We made some food so we could have some friends over for dinner. We spent all evening with good friends. You can't ask for a better day than that. |
Who Am I?
As a Stay At Home Mom of 4 wonderful children, I have the amazing opportunity not only to home school them, but to do so in many different places! I am married to the most amazingly wonderful (and handsome) man in the whole world! Together, we seek out, every day, that Joy in the Journey that makes life exciting! Archives
November 2020
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Emily's books
by Dan Brown
I like that the plot twists and turns a lot...and it makes you think. However, I don't appreciate Dan Brown's endings in his books. I find the endings incongruent with the rest of his stories--why make it a romance for the last chapter...
by Shannon Hale
I loved this book. I'm a sucker for fairy tales/fantasy. This was so well written! I can't wait to read all the rest of her books!
by Shannon Hale
I'm reading this one again. I liked it the first time I read it. I'm still liking it for the second time around. I like all of Shannon Hales' books.
**Still lots of fun the second time around! I do like this book for a comfortable...
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